good evening. rain has returned to the bay area just days after that massive storm this past weekend. here's a live look at storm tracker 2, where you can see a new system is just beginning to make its way through region. we have live team storm watch coverage. bill martin is tracking the conditions for us from our weather center. we begin with ken live in the north bay where many nabbeds are still recovering from the last storm. >> reporter: the rain, a light rain started coming down in petaluma just about 20 minutes ago. we're standing in front of the petaluma river, one of many rivers in the north bay that were edging toward flood stage with this series of storms over the weekend, the heaviest on sunday. since then we've had one dry day. the river levels are going down. that's unlikely to change with this rain.

this is miller creek in marin wood, scene of a search and rescue by firefighters yesterday when teenagers reportedly playing here were fear swept away. no one of found. today the creek has slowed, much of the danger passed. some rivers are still raging. this is the russian river near forestville. >> so there is kind of a beach in the middle of us here. was a beach. >> george owns river bend rv park much he says these trees which you can only see the tops of now are 20 feet tall. he says the river is running about 30 feet deep. it did not reach flood stage. but it's far from normal. >> last tuesday about four feet deep. >> all these trees were showing and there was a beach in between us ?oomplets river got so high george moved several rvs to higher ground. they know flooding here this. lumber jack is a landmark. here it is back in 2006 when the russian river jumped its

banks. george says it looked dicey this past weekend but he's sure a little more rain won't cause any worries. >> this morning it was up a foot below the edge. it's gone down quite a bit in a couple hours. >> so renewed flooding may not be were of a concern. i talked to a fire captain with the san rafael fire department. he says what they're watching is with this added rain coming down on already saturated ground, that they'll watch out for the potential of landslides in the area. back to you. crews in lafayette are still trying to repair a massive siferg hole there that's 15 feet deep. the 80 foot long section of mountainview drive classonsed sunday morning due to a clogged storm drain. this is video taken today as the city works to try a temporary fix. officials say permanent repairs may not be finished until spring. live storm tracker 2 lit up

and going. we have rain falling. you saw ken up in petaluma, light showers there. more significant rain showing up toward czar and healdsburg. you can see the santa rosa area, there's mendocino avenue. moderate rainfall, a little heavier than what ken's seeing. compared to what we did see, this is more showery activity. if you are driving up 101er to petaluma, you ever some wet roads, not flooding. the wipers are on moderate or enter mitt ntd. then you head toward pacific arks some showers coming onshore north right here near the edge mar area. out toward the portola valley arks reports of sprinkles here. a little activity out here toward the market street area. you get the picture. back out the east bay, what's going on? we got nothing. in the next few hours i suspect we'll see showers move into some of the east bay corridors. the real story will than morning commute. that's when the strongest dynamics get here. we'll time it out with the

latest model. continuing coverage on the battle to bare it all in san francisco. hours ago the board of supervisors pass add controversial ban on nudity prompting opponents of the measure to strip down in protest. david steyenson live from the city with how the district attorney plans to prosecute violators. >> reporter: the district attorney talked to us about what will happen when the ban takes effect on february 1. it includes a $100 teen for the first violation of the nudists are vowing to fight the ban. san francisco supervisors today finalize add ban on public nudity prompting a half dozen people to strip in the chambers. >> colleagues ask that we temporarily recess this meeting. >> this is amazing. we're leading a world battle against oppression. >> new ordinance group found complaints about an increasing number of nudists in the city's castro district. >> i gave this two years to run

its course. it got more extreme. >> nudists call it a violation of their free speech rights and are taking the ordinance to court with some castro residents sympathetic to the cause. >> i have mixed feelings. i think people should have freedom to do what they want to do. i sort of understand some of the families and kids, maybe their concerns. >> opponents say police should be focused on violent crime, rather than citing nudists. the district attorney today told us even low level offenses are important to prosecute. >> there are many other social restraints that are part of the soarvel contract when we live in an organized society and if we want to live in the woods and be by ourself, that's a different story. >> nudists scrg the district attorney to look into this hearing last month when supervisors initian. nudists say the municipal tv station violated sunshine laws because it didn't record their nude protest in chambers. back to you.

a federal judge ruled today that california's ban on gay conversion therapy can take effect january 1. the law forbids licensed therapists from trying to change the sexual orientation of minors. today a u.s. district judge in sacramento found opponents of the ban are unlikely to prove the law violates their civil rights. the plaintiffs say they'll appeal. >> they want tone sure that people who want their professional help are able to seek that out. >> in another lawsuit a federal judge ruled yesterday that two therapists and a student should be exempt from the law while their case is brogue heard. so the south bay where a massive pot grow was discovered inside a home today. we have exclusive video from inside. we're live from san jose police headquarters where officers are still investigating. >> reporter: in the last couple of minutes, i checked with one

of the investigators. he says they're still following up leads to find out who is responsible. as we discovered today, the owners of this home seemed just as stunned as anyone else. >> oh, my god. oh, my god. >> only we were there this afternoon as one of the owners came out to see the home after we told him what happened. he says he and his wife had been renting out this house and they had no idea it looked like this on the inside. early this morning neighbors called police when they saw several people taking things out of the house. witnesses thought it was a burglary. officers found what's was left of about 300 harvested marijuana plants. they say the plants have a street value of $100,000. the owners of the home have no idea how much it will cost them to make repairs. >> so sad. it's very sad and very -- i don't know what to say now. >> he told me he had never met

the latest ten anted. only that he paid his rent on time. police found evidence someone had rigged the electricity to steal power from pg&e. so far investigators do not have anybody in custody in this case. the homeowners did say they plan to talk to police very soon. back to you. authorities in san francisco say a suspected marijuana grow probably is what started a two alarm fire that spread from one attic to another in the haight ashbury neighbor. firefighters worked on the roofs of two victorians on page street near ash bury. the house on the corner where the fire spread, 1550 page street, was actually the setting for a cbs tv documentary back in 1967 on the hippie scene. police say whoever is responsible for the grow could face charges. man from campbell has been arrested at the arizona border accused of having liquid methamphetamines. officials say the man was

stopped friday. they say they found a total of 66 pounds of liquid meth hidden in the gas tank of his car. the drugs were valued at more than $1 million. he has been turned over to federal immigration officials. two morgan hill residents are under arrest for allegedly kidnapping a handyman. the zack zack county sheriff's office says the two lured the victim to a home yesterday. officials say they held the man against his will, threatened him and forced him to do repair work. he did escape. authorities arrested two people. san francisco's muni metro services back to normal this morning after a systemwide shutdown last night. crews worked until 1:30 a.m. to restore service to the subway system in time for the morning commute. yesterday around 5:45 a transformer blew out causing electrical signaling problems during the evening commute. although the problem has been fixed, muni is still trying to determine if blooding from the recent storms is what caused

the problem. the owners of the drake's bay oyster company is fighting back to keep his business from shutting down. the washington, d.c. based nonprofit cause of action says it's working with the owners to take legal action against the national park service. last week the interior department said the government would not reyou in the company's permit to operate at the point reyes national seashore which is set to expire in 90 days. a revamped facebook messenger service could be competing with text messaging according to some analysts. the new android app was unveiled today in south africa, india, australia and venezuela. the service works like an instant message network except users can bypass expensive global text messaging fees, implemented by cell phone companies. the service is expected to roll out worldwide soon. federal regulators ever approved disney's deal to buy lucas film. the $4.5 billion deal was announced in october. today anti-trust regulators

issued the notice of claire are clearance. disney says with its new acquisition was star wars franchise it plans to make sequels to the six part series. organizers of san francisco's outside lands music festival have set the dates for 2013. the festival in golden gate park will run august 9-11. it features dozens of bands over three days along with food, wine and beer. no word yet on the lineup. one contra costa county city has 80% fewer homes for sale than usual. >> as the real estate market heats up, for sale signs are becoming less common. what that means for buyers and sellers coming up. >> then how the results of this recount will affect your east bay commute and your wallet for years to come. >> taxpayer dollars are on the line. >> right after the break, new details on a threat of more shuttered fire stations. when and where they could soon

be closed.

gentleman firefighters in contra costa county join a heated debate involving the closure of four fire stations. rob rosts is here with when a final decision could be made. >> this fire station on shell avenue in martinez is one of four stations in the county marked for closure. in a meeting that just wrapped up, the contra costa county board boar put off making a final vote. >> fire fires throughout the county came in on their day off to see if the contra costa county board of supervisors would vote to close four fire stations. people urged the board to spare the stations in their communities including this fire station situated blocks from the shell refinery. >> it's the first line of

defense for us against the many mishaps that could happen. >> in addition to the station in martinez, the others earmarked for closure are in walnut creek on hawthorne driver, loafer, and clayton on center avenue. >> this will leave clayton with absolutely no fire stations in our city. >> the stations were marked by contra costa county fire officials to save $10 mall year. officials warn that if a park tax measure failed last month this would happen and the measure did fail. >> we're at a place now where we don't have an awful lot of options available to us. >> fire officials say they made decisions based on call volume at each station and proximity to other stations. firefighters say closing the stations will increase response times. >> we'll have to reconsider our tactics, maybe not go in because when you go into in to do an interior fire attack, you need to have necessary backup on the outside. >> supervisors asked the fire chief to come back with more information on specific stations and possible alternatives. >> it's most likely that there

will be some closure, whether that means full or partial closure, i think it's too early to tell. >> the board is expected to vote next tuesday of the. at least two additional fire stations could be closed in the next two years joomple election workers began tedious recount of ballots today in alameda county of of narrowly defeated transit tax. measure b1 would have increased the county transportation sales tax from a half cent to a full cent to pay for trance ate road improvement. if failed by a fraction of a percent or fewer than 800 of the half a million votes cast. sporers are footing the bill to have all of the ballot rest counted. >> with a recount, any voter in the count county can request a recount. they have to pay for it. in this case the proponents are paying somewhere around $7500 per day to do the recount. >> both sides are monitoring the recount and can challenge decisions on individual

ballots. election officials say the recount could take weeks. new, the housing market is heating unacross the bay area. now realtors are looking for ways to take advantage of that. we're in walnut creek where agents are getting creative in finding new ways to sell. >> reporter: this is one of very knew homes for sale in walnut creek. prices are rise hearing. nationally sales are up as well. tuesday'ss in walnut creek are reserved for real estate brokers to tour each other's available homes. today the inventory was ything but normal. >> there are very few listings other market. that's causing the prices to rise. >> we toured two of the four available walnut creek properties, a fraction of the normal inventory because many homeowners are hanging on to their homes. >> it might be 20 or 25 homes on the market on a deuce day. >> this broker showing home says agents are being creative

to find something to sell. >> a lot of people are back to door knocking a and saying, have you thought about selling your home? that this home is selling for $765,000. >> we have over 40 brokers that have come through today. plus ten potential buyers without brokers. >> most people who dropped by were brokers. we found this mother and two kids taking a look. >> i think we'll have to really fight for the house that we fall in love with if there is one. >> home sales nationwide have seen increases year over year for 18 straight months. >> everybody benefits from the trickle out economics that the housing brings because when people buy houses they need other services. >> while low inventory works in the seller's favor, buyers also have some advantages. >> you have buyers that can can get into houses with extremely low interest rates and overall still much better housing pricing than five, six years ago. >> reporter: the holidays also contribute to the tight market. one broker said he expects a

lot of new inventory come january. back to you. state lawmakers introduced legislation today to provide funding for energy fish cease projects at schools across the state. that funding would come from proposition 39 which voters approved in november to close tax loopholes for out of state companies. the money would be used to update lighting and ventilation systems at schools in the state's poorest neighborhoods. today the city of santa clara is going grown with with a new solar power araimplet silicon valley power flipped the switch today to 1,000 donated solar panels on what used to be a vacant lot between jenny strand park and i-280. in return solar company mia soleil will be able to use the location for its own research. >> this is our first system on one and half acres. we have seven acres, room for expansion. we're really excited about the future. >> city says the panels will generate enough electricity to power more than two dozen homes

and keep up to 72 metric tons of caron dioxide from entering the atmosphere. we're talking some showers right now. heaviest rain is in the north bay, light showers headed your way in the next couple of hours. you can see most of the activity is north of us. out toward the petaluma, santa rosa area, we've had on and off showers. the showers are dying down a little bit in santa rosa. we head to petaluma, showers picked up a little here, downtown petaluma. light showers, reports i'm getting are just drizzly, light sprinkles. toward pacificca there were sprinkles. those have backed off. you get a little activity out here by the ballpark, by candlestick and by the ferry building. but not a lot going on. but it will. things will change. in the east bay same thing. i think in the next two hours, i think we'll see some sprinkles showing up in concord, san ramon. this is not the main event.

the main event is in the morning hours about the time you are getting out of your house and driving to work. the early morning commute will see the most rain, 4:00, 5:00 a.m. a a wide swath of moisture, very moist, a lot of rain could come out of this. the up are air support isn't like it was the other day. so it will slide through. there will be a lot more coastal rain than inland. behind boulder creek, san jose, concord, you will see a little rain. so midnight tonight, that's when it's startling to move. more showers, about pk a.m., then a line goes through about 5:00 a.m. that's the 5:00 commute. then you see more showers around 7:00, 8:00 and 9:00. so the morning commute looks like it will be a wet one. then it dries out. there are scattered showers left in the forecast. so the five day forecast coming up shows a bit of a break from

the rain after this. the morning commute, anytime you put a little rain on that thing, we could see a quarter inch in some parts of the bay arks maybe an inch in santa rosa. >> thank you. coming up at 7:00, fight to save a popular north bay oyster farm takes a new turn. the owner is upping his battle against the government while jobs are a at stake. >> what lies under the surface of mars? new answers are being unearthed right here in the bay area. those stories and much more at 7:00 on tv 36. it's called operation santa. how volunteers across the bay area are helping to spread christmas cheer. martine non-a, festive like champagne, and tastes t! martinelli's: since 1868.

festive like champagne, and tastes t! because we know how much you do to make the holidays just right. from ornaments to ottomans, memories are made with ikea.

the u.s. postal service kicked off its annual operation santa program across bay area today. volunteers gathered at the main mail distribution center in oakland to help santa responsibility to letters sent by children to santa at the nor pole. for a closer look, go to ktvu.com. look under bay area living. mark's here now with spores. a lot of people trying to come to terms with what happened to the 49ers sunday against the rams.

>> it's definitely one of of those losses that sticks in your craw. everybody knows the nfl is the what have you done for me lately league. it's teem to move on much so many ways the 49ers could have beaten the rams in st. louis, even the last drive by the rams, they could have gone three and out. niners had time left to win the game in overtime. there you see it. they've got the winning kick. there it goes. the good news is the niners claim nobody's pointing fingers at each other. >> as team, we're in it as a team. with we have to find a way to try and get that w no matter what the circumstance is. they have to drive the ball on the defense, so regardless, we need to go three and out and stop them. no chance to come back and try to put points on the board. the baseball winter meetings continue. yesterday the giants take care of big business with a couple

of rather huge moves today. dan and former oakland a leaves anaheim and signs a one-year deal worth $13 million with the washington nationals. this guy was 12-13 last year with a 4.33 era. moves to the national league where he's 1-5 lifetime against the giants. also, shane victory een owe is no long area dodger. he split his year last year with the phillies and l.a. he agrees to a three year, $39 million deal with the boston red sox. he's switching leagues. how about that, $39 million for a guy who hit .255 last year. that's baseball. that's the sporting life. >> thank you. coming up at 10:00, our storm watch coverage continues as a new system move through the bay area. >> we're watching the hot spots still reeling from the last storm. thank you for trusting ktvu, channel 2 news.

what's that?

when i take a picture of this check, it goes straight to the bank. oh. oh look the lion is out! no mommy no!